


Eridan Ampora's Helmsman

by Chichirinoda



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-27
Updated: 2011-08-27
Packaged: 2017-10-23 02:41:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/245406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chichirinoda/pseuds/Chichirinoda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the game is won and the universes have been reset to their original state, Eridan Ampora is shunned by the others and finds himself bitter, obsessed and alone. Sollux is taken by the authorities and trained as a Helmsman, and when Eridan is promoted and granted his own ship, who else would he choose but the troll he hates most in the world?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eridan Ampora's Helmsman

The tealblood chattered subserviently as she led the newly-promoted Captain Eridan Ampora down the hallway towards the schoolfeeding chamber. Eridan listened to the woman's rapid-fire sales pitch, though he pretended to be simply bored and ignoring her. It wouldn't do for him to admit to her that he was actually really nervous and excited, and had no idea what to expect.

He'd just been given his first ship, the captaincy bestowed by the Condesce herself - well, by a paper with her seal on it, practically the same thing. He had a ship of his _very own_ , and he was only ten sweeps old.

Now he needed a helmsman. The perfect slave, someone with whom Eridan could form the kind of bond that could only exist between a Captain and his pilot. He needed a pilot who could practically read his mind, and take him to the furthest reaches of the galaxy at the slightest whim.

He had read all of the stories, and he'd been fantasizing about this for the week it had taken for him to arrange this meeting. All he need was to find the right one.

The teal led him past cubicle after cubicle. Rustbloods, oranges, yellows, even a very few low greens. The lowblood psionics were half-encased in specially-designed recooperacoons, submerged up to the waist in sopor slime, and hooked up to a forest of wires and tubes, running to various monitors. Some tubes delivered nutrients and drugs to the slaves, while others removed wastes.

A fat larval connector hub was grafted onto the side of each one's head. The reddish larva was large enough to run from their cheek almost up to their horns in many cases, and more biotechnological wires ran from it to a computer monitor.

They pulsated slowly, delivering the training that would allow the helmsmen to commune with an imperial battlecruiser seamlessly. It also delivered the brainwashing programs that would ensure they couldn't raise a hand to their highblood masters, and would follow every command, even if it resulted in their own deaths.

Eridan nodded as the tealblood explained all this to him, making pleased and approving noises.

Inwardly, he felt a little ill. It was one thing to read about in a book. It was something else to actually see living trolls - even if they were just lowbloods - undergoing this horrific torture. But this sort of thing was necessary, for the stability of their entire race. Without Helmsmen to push ships beyond light speed, the worlds would be cut off from one another, and sooner or later the Empire would fall.

They continued on, and he almost passed the cubicle by like all of the others, but something flashed in his brain, just enough to make him turn his head and take a second look. And he stopped dead.

It was him.

Like all the others he had seen, Sollux lay half-submerged in green slime, wires connecting him to machinery arrayed around him, and bearing a glassy-eyed stare. His lips were parted slightly, and chapped as he breathed, murmuring a word over and over.

 _"No."_

The last time Eridan had seen him, it had been immediately after Karkat, John and the others had won the game for good, banishing Lord English and rebooting both of their sessions. The worlds had been returned to the way they had been before the game, and Sollux' injuries had been healed. Eridan and the other dead trolls had been pulled from the bubbles and given a brand new lease on life.

No one but the twelve of them remembered the meteors. Even the Condesce had no memory of the mayday signal that had sent her limping back to her dead world for six centuries after the Vast Glub had murdered their entire species.

Eridan hadn't seen any of the other eleven since that day. They had wanted nothing to do with him. They had said that he deserved death, but since he'd already died for his crimes, he had been allowed to leave alive.

He had told himself that he didn't care to see any of them, anyway, and he had thrown himself into his work as soon as he had come of age and left Alternia.

That obsession, and the incredible training and experience he had received in the game, had earned him glory. It had earned him a ship. It had brought him no true pleasure or happiness.

Until now.

He strode into the cubicle and caught Sollux by the chin, turning the lowblood's face up towards him. For a moment there was no response, then Sollux blinked slowly and his eyes focused. His mouth closed, then opened in a silent cry of terror and surprise.

"You remember me?" Eridan hissed softly, too softly for the tealblood to hear him.

Sollux' mouth moved for a moment, then he swallowed. "Yeth, highblood," Sollux whispered in a voice that rasped in a dry throat. The fear in his tone was music to Eridan's ears.

Once he had wanted more than almost anything for Sollux to look at him with anything other than contempt. Hatred. Lust. Fear. Even pity. Any of those would have been acceptable. But all he had gotten was contemptuous laughter from this pissblood filth.

It had driven him out of his mind, and he had destroyed everything he had ever cared about in one rage-filled and hopeless moment. Nothing had been the same after that.

He straightened and turned to the watching tealblood. "I wwant this one."

The woman blinked at him, startled by the abruptness of his decision. "Ah, yes, an excellent choice. The Condesce herself has expressed some interest in the training of this one. It is one of the more powerful that I've ever trained, if not the most powerful. It will demand a high price, highbloo--"

"I can pay," Eridan interrupted, hissing. He had more money than he knew what to do with, after sweeps of conquering planets and taking those spoils due to him. Whatever Sollux was worth, he could afford it. And whatever price they had placed upon him, he was willing to pay. "Are you saying that I can't havve him, because Her Imperial Condescension has claimed him?"

"No, highblood," she said, bowing nervously. "No, not at all. I'll go get the paperwork. Please excuse me for a moment."

She darted away, and he turned back to his prize. This was the real prize due him, after all of his hard work. After all of those sweeps of being dismissed and laughed at and ignored, he would finally have exactly what he had always wanted.

His kismesis.

"Sol," he whispered. "You knoww I'm takin' you to my ship, right?"

"Y-yeth," Sollux murmured.

"And you're gonna servve me. Be my fuckin' loyal and obedient pilot."

Sollux nodded, just the tiniest bit.

He cocked his head, smirking. "If I let you out right noww, wwhat do you think you'd do?"

The psychic blinked. "I...I'd do what you want me to do?"

Utterly. Broken. Eridan's heart squeezed, and his stomach clenched, and he grinned and pressed a kiss to Sollux's forehead. "Good fuckin' answwer."

"...Thank you, captain."

Eridan caressed Sollux' cheek with one hand as he waited, and the slave trembled.

======>

Captain Eridan Ampora strode into his command room, his boots sloshing just a little in the sea water that coated the floor. He stepped over slowly shifting tentacles, and climbed the short step ladder that projected up over the mass of living biotechnology that coiled up from the floor in a writhing mound.

His slave hung suspended, his legs encased in the tentacles, and his arms stretched up over his head. His head hung down and he breathed slowly and shallowly, his eyes glassy and his lips moving soundlessly as he interfaced with the ship.

He was beautiful.

This was his maiden voyage, and the Helmsman had been installed only hours before. Eridan was alone in the room with his slave for the first time. He waved a hand. "Monitors off."

"Yeth, thir. Monitorth off," Sollux murmured. Red and blue eyes flickered, and the cameras monitoring this room shut down with a soft chime.

Eridan slipped his arms around Sollux and caressed him. Sollux shuddered and mewled in his arms.

"Hey Sol," Eridan whispered. His aquatic based vascular system was pounding. "You belong to me, noww, yeah?"

"Yeth captain," Sollux whimpered, shivering in his arms.

Eridan wanted to laugh. He wanted to scream.

"And you'll be mine until you die."

"Yeth, captain."

This was all he had. It was all he had ever wanted. It was this, or nothing. Nothing was worse.

"And you can nevver, evver leavve me, no matter howw much you hate me. No matter howw much you wwant to go."

Sollux gave a soft, quiet sigh. "Yeth, captain."

Eridan closed his eyes and pressed his lips to Sollux' throat. And if a few purplish tears dripped down his cheeks and soaked into his Helmsman's collar, he knew that Sollux, at least, would never be able to tell anyone about it.


End file.
